If coalitions can get into schoolyard fights, then they did Thursday afternoon.

For nearly a year, the Better Together coalition has explored whether St. Louis and St. Louis County should consider merging services. Within St. Louis County, some believe there also is a need for consolidation: Sen. Jamilah Nasheed, D-St. Louis, has introduced a bill that would eliminate some of St. Louis County's smaller municipalities.

People in Berlin and throughout Germany recently celebrated the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. These commemorations should prompt some reflection closer to home, specifically on the state of local government in the St. Louis area. Doing so raises a fundamental question: If it’s possible for East and West Germany to be reunited, why can’t there be meaningful municipal reorganizations in St. Louis city and county? Whatever barriers we perceive in our community are minuscule in comparison with those that had to be dismantled in Germany.

A group studying the potential for a merger between St. Louis and St. Louis County released a report on regional economic development policy Wednesday.

Among other things, Better Together’s 31-page report examines tax increment financing (TIF) in the city and the county. While the report emphasizes that some TIFs have been beneficial to municipalities, the study contends that the widespread use of TIFs is pitting municipalities against each other.

Updated Monday, March 3, 2014 to include audio from St. Louis on the Air.

Former U.S. Sen. Richard Lugar remembers a time when his home city was described by travel writers as “Indianapolis No Place.”

When the Indiana Republican became mayor of Indianapolis in the 1960s, the city was mired in a “mediocre, flat situation.” He said it received “very little interest to anybody outside who was not involved parochially.”

Former U.S. Sen. Richard Lugar says bringing local governments can strengthen the health – and brighten the future -- of urban communities.

The Indiana Republican was the keynote speaker for a St. Louis University Law School symposium on merging St. Louis and St. Louis County. He was a key figure in banding together city of Indianapolis with Marion County in the 1970s.

Lugar says merging the two governments had skeptics. But he says it attracted jobs, sports teams and tourists – and reinvigorated civic life.

This article originally appeared in the St. Louis Beacon: For the umpteenth time over the last half century, some civic activists are floating the idea of official reconnection between St. Louis and St. Louis County. But this time, lots of politics are mixed in with the policy issues.

Talk of city/county reunification appears to be increasingly intertwined with the 2014 contest for St. Louis County executive.

This article originally appeared in the St. Louis Beacon: More than 100 years after the "Great Divorce," some people are apparently hearing wedding bells. The question of a remarriage between St. Louis and St. Louis County may be the regional debate that won't go away.

This article originally appeared in the St. Louis Beacon:It was 9 a.m. in the morning on a fall day in October when the endless repetition campaign was initiated for the first time. After that, the effort subsequently caught on and spread like uncontrolled wildfire until it became a popular fad.

Enough, already: Redundancy sucks. The example above is muddled speech, which usually reflects muddled thought. Worse than false, it is stupid — though the sin can be forgiven if it is sung.

This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon: St. Louis County Executive Charlie Dooley made a point earlier this summer to note that his friendship with St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay went beyond politics.

“[People will say] Charlie, Mayor Slay is your political friend. No he’s not,” Dooley said during a speech in June. “He is just my friend. He’s my friend. And that’s what I want you to understand. This is in our best interest. He wants St. Louis City to be successful. I want St. Louis County to be successful.

"Together, we want to the St. Louis region to be all that it can be,” he added.

This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon: The St. Louis County Council gave its final blessing to merging some duties of city and county economic development agencies, a move that ratifies a plan announced earlier this year.

This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon: The St. Louis County Republican Central Committee has unanimously passed a resolution opposing any sort of city-county merger, including the merger of the economic development agencies now underway.